1 posts from November 4, 2013

November 04, 2013

One point that has been made by multiple analysts about the Jonathan Martin bullying situation: Dolphins brass should have known about this before the situation got to this point. Some of the comments:

### ESPN's Cris Carter: "I’m really disappointed in [Martin’s] teammates, because I don’t know how this guy can still be playing on a football team and they not find it out. I’m disappointed in the offensive players. I’m disappointed in Mike Pouncey. The guy who is playing right next to you and you don’t know? This is criminal information. We’re taking showers together. We’re on the road together. We’re sleeping together. I’m depending on you, man, so I don’t get my neck cracked. And they don’t even know this? [Ryan] Tannehill, the quarterback, how can they not know? How can these guys not know? Joe Philbin as the head coach, the reason why coaches in this league are great is because they care about the players. The reason why [Martin] didn’t want to talk to [Philbin] when they met is because [Martin] didn’t trust him. When a young kid can’t go to a coach and tell him what’s happening to him, that’s how guys get weeded out in the football league. But you got to care about these guys.”

### CBS' Phil Simms: "You have to have a pulse on your football team. (When I played for the Giants), I’m not going to say our atmosphere was the best in the NFL. But our head coach Bill Parcells, he had guys in the locker room – that was kind of their job. To watch and see what was going on and if there was a problem, to let him know. They weren’t snitches. We know who those guys were on the football team. In fact, we looked up to them because we knew their job was really important for the whole culture of the team. So when you hear what went on with the Dolphins, I just can’t believe other players and coaches and people didn’t do something about it. You have to put the blame, no matter what comes out of this, on everybody. It’s a rough situation."

### CBS' Steve Beuerlein: "I was drafted by the Raiders back in 1987 before free agency when the veterans ran the show. But I can honestly say during those days, there was some semi-hazing going on. There was some initiation stuff going on. But it was all in fun. There was nothing that ever got out of control. I went to other places where it did cross the line a little bit, where it was a little bit out of control. But never something to the extent of this where it significantly impacted someone in such a negative and ugly way. There’s no excuse for it and I have a very hard time believing that no one in the organization of the Miami Dolphins (knew about this), whether it be a trainer, whether it is one of the assistant coaches."

### CBS' Rich Gannon: "It’s going to take people with great strength, great morals, fortitude and great leadership to go in there and clean up a locker room that is in disarray. I don’t know that (the Dolphins) have enough of those players right now in that building."

### Simms: "There are no secrets in the locker room. Do you want to know what’s going on with the football team? Ask the equipment manager. Go ask the trainers. Go ask the video guys. Everybody knows everything that is going on. So those players most likely knew what was going on, and they kept quiet about it. That’s concerning."

### CBS Sports Network's Bart Scott, on Richie Incognito: "He needs to be gone. No one would miss him anyway. Trust me."

### Couple of on-field notes: Asked why the running game has improved, offensive coordinator Mike Sherman pointed to "the emergence of Michael Egnew," who has played well recently in a tight end/pseudo fullback role... Sherman said Lamar Miller might get more carries if he continues to run this effectively.

WMEN-640 dropped host Dan Sileo on Monday, a day after he sent a tweet offering $1000 to any UM player who would do something to sideline FSU running back Devonta Freeman in a potential Atlantic Coast Conference championship game between the teams.

Sileo's tweet read: "In 6 weeks... I will PAY a $1000 BUCKS TO ANY @hurricanesports PLAYER TO TAKES THIS KID OUT. #MHFreeman." That expression is synonymous with injuring a player.

Sileo, a former UM defensive lineman, was angry because the FSU player was holding up a “U” sign. But Sileo misidentified the player. The player whose image he linked to, throwing up The U, was actually FSU defensive tackle Tim Jernigan.

Shortly after sending that tweet, Sileo said he was joking about the bounty.

But UM, FSU and WMEN management weren’t amused.

UM and FSU expressed their concern to WMEN general manager Steve Lapa. A day later, Lapa dismissed Sileo, who was an independent contractor at the station.

“We don’t support that position,” Lapa said of Sileo’s initial tweet offering a bounty. “The reaction to his tweet was strong. It’s in everyone’s best interests to move forward.” The station also released a statement saying his actions "have no place in sports."

After being dropped, Sileo tweeted that he is “shocked over the backlash over a tweet I made concerning an FSU player over the weekend…. My family has death threats from some FSU football fans and I even kept my daughter home from school today.

“Very sad society we live in when somebody actually thinks I would want another kid hurt. Awful. But death threats are real. I have reported all the death threats to police and FBI. I have hired a private cop and he is armed. My family and I are in hiding.”

Lapa said UM did not encourage him to fire Sileo. But UM officials were upset about Sileo’s tweet because any offer of a bounty obviously would violate NCAA rules.

Sileo tweeted that it is “very disappointing to know the University of Miami [led] the charge on this.” He said UM “is a school I bled and won for. I am treated like a dog by them.”

WQAM-560 removed Sileo from its UM postgame show after last season partly because he leveled criticism that the station and university deemed over-the-top and irresponsible. He was fired by WQAM in March after uttering an anti-Semitic remark on the air.

WMEN hired him in September to host from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Marc Eisenberg will fill in during that slot for an indefinite period, Lapa said.

### Former Dolphins running back Troy Stradford tweeted: "Interesting how that time slot has had nothing but change my since firing. Maybe they got it wrong." He has a point!